MY old friend, Mrs. M.— was telling me the other day of a conversation she once had with a young lawyer.
She was going on a short trip on the local train. Sitting in the seat with her was a young woman who mas a Sunday school teacher, and in the course of conversation they were talking of the lesson on the previous Sunday—“The Children of Israel crossing the Red Sea.”
Sitting behind them was a young man whom Mrs. M— knew to be a young lawyer from the city. He overheard their conversation, and after listening for a time, he leaned forward and said to her; “Surely you don’t believe that old story?” To which Mrs. M.— replied, “Indeed I do; I believe the Bible is the Word of God from cover to cover, and every word God speaks is true.”
“O, well.” said the lawyer. “I can’t believe that, but it is the way one is brought up that makes the difference.”
“No”, said Mrs. M.— “I can assure you from my own experience that it is not the way you are brought up that makes the difference; it is whether you have Jesus in your heart or not, that makes the difference.
The lawyer looked very sober for a few minutes, and then said; “Would you mind telling me about your experience?” She felt somewhat embarrassed, but remembering the word; “Be ready always to give an answer to him that asketh you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear,” so lifting her heart to the Lord for strength and wisdom, she told him that few children had been more carefully trained up in the fear of the Lord than she had. Her parents had both been devoted Christians; she had been taught the Scriptures from her earliest years, had committed whole chapters to memory, and really loved to read her Bible. Yet she had grown to womanhood, had married and had three children before she had found the Lord as her only personal Savior.
All those years she had known she was not saved, and she had not been happy, but when questioned about her soul, her excuse had been that there were some things she could not believe.
When at last she became thoroughly aroused to her lost condition and the Lord would bring before her some word to convict her of sin, and point her to the Savior, Satan would always whisper to her, “You have known that all your life; there is nothing in that.”
But one day being in an agony of soul, and being alone in the house, except for her little children, she left her work, and kneeling down, poured out everything to the Lord, and told Him if He would only give her one word from Himself that would meet her need, she would believe it unquestioningly. Instantly the word came, “Thy sins are forgiven thee, go in peace.” And as her little children came crowding around her the Lord gave her that word also. “If ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good gifts to them that ask Him,” and she rose from her knees a new creature in Christ, with a peace and happiness in her heart which the world could neither give nor take away.
As she finished her story the lawyer said, “O, you all tell the same thing.”
“Who do you mean by all?” said Mrs. M—
“All you who say you know the Lord,” he replied.
“Well,” said Mrs. M.— “you are a lawyer, are you not? and if you have a case in court, and all your witnesses tell the same story, you have your case, have you not? Now, the Word says, we are His witnesses, and if we all tell the same story, don’t you think you should believe our witness, and accept our Savior?”
The young lawyer had listened to her story with apparently deep interest, but when she put this question to him, he made no reply, but got up suddenly and left the car.
Dear children, do you believe the word we bear witness to? Yes, God bears witness to,
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”? Act. 16:31.
ML-09/05/1920